The New York Academy of Sciences hosted multi-disciplinary experts for a workshop that promoted greater understanding, and continued interest in, the connections between play, the development of attentional and cognitive abilities, and subsequent learning.

Training executive function is a big part of why we send kids to school. But what works best? The New York Academy of Sciences invited neuroscientists and educators to meet in Aspen to hash out what we know and how schools might change to help every child succeed.
( http://www.nyas.org/Publications/EBriefings/Detail.aspx?cid=c49a5765-ad0e-472b-a252-e3799fb11332 )

Colin Blakemore, PhD, ScD, FRS (Oxford and Warwick) gave the Max Cowan lecture at the Federation of Neuroscience Societies (FENS) meeting in Amsterdam on July 6, 2010. The talk,” Death and Transfiguration in the Development of the Brain,” was sponsored by the European Dana Alliance (EDAB). Blakemore is vice-chairman of EDAB. Max Cowan was a founding member of the Dana Alliance.

Michael Gazzaniga, Ph.D., University of California, Santa Barbara, organizer of the Dana Foundation Learning, Arts, and the Brain Consortium was interviewed on film for the Learning, Arts, and the Brain Summit. Gazzaniga discusses the research involved in the Consortium, findings, the importance of attention research, and what helps motivate people to the arts. This film was created for the Learning, Arts, and Brain Summit by Mind in the Making: a Project of Families and Work Institute and New Screen Concepts.

Dr. Jordan Grafman, chief of the Cognitive Neuroscience Section at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke outside of Washington, DC, and a member of the Dana Alliance for Brain Initiatives, is your guide as we cover what to expect from the aging brain and what we can do to 'stay sharp.' Throughout this program we draw on insights from top neuroscientists committed to helping more people know about what happens to our brain as we age and the brain healthy behaviors that we can incorporate into our daily lives. The Staying Sharp program is a joint project of NRTA: AARP's Educator Community and The Dana Alliance for Brain Initiatives. For a free DVD of this program please contact stayingsharp@dana.org.

Kay Redfield Jamison, Ph.D., Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and J. Raymond DePaulo, Jr., M.D., Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine join Paul R. McHugh, M.D. Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, to discuss McHugh's new book, Try to Remember: Psychiatry's Clash over Meaning, Memory, and Mind. William Safire, chairman of the Dana Foundation served as moderator.

Dennis Charney, M.D., Mount Sinai School of Medicine, Steven Hyman, M.D., Harvard University, and Jordan Grafman, Ph.D., National Institute for Neurological Disorders and Stroke discussed the latest research in traumatic brain injury and post traumatic stress syndrome. The event was held at the Dana Center in Washington, DC and moderated by William Safire, chairman of the Dana Foundation.

Music and the Brain: From Perception to Emotion brought together neuroscientists, performing artists, and the public all participating in a gathering which discussed the interpretation of emotions, creativity, and improvisation. The public event was held during the Federation of European Neuroscience Societies (FENS) in Geneva. Participants included, EDAB vice chairman, Pierre Magistretti, Federal Institute of Technology and Lausanne University Hospital; Francois Ansermet, Geneva University Hospital; Gary Magby, Lausanne Music Conservatory; Solenn' Lavanant, opera singer; Ioanna Bentoiu, opera singer; Richard Rentsch (www.richard-rentsch.com), composer and Orazio Sciortino (www.oraziosciortino.com).

Dan Gordon, editor of Your Brain on Cubs, moderated a panel about baseball and the brain with former Giant baseball great Bobby Thomson; Hillary R. Rodman, Ph.D., Emory University; and Jordan Grafman, Ph.D., National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.

The Dana Foundation released at a news conference on March 4, Learning, Arts, and the Brain, a three-year study at seven universities, which finds strong links between arts education and cognitive development. Speakers included Michael Gazzaniga, Ph.D., UC, Santa Barbara; Michael Posner, Ph.D., University of Oregon; Elizabeth Spelke, Ph.D., Harvard University and Brian Wandell, Ph.D., Stanford University. Guy Mckhann, M.D., Johns Hopkins University gave a summary and Dana Gioia, chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts spoke of the study’s importance to the field of education.

Dr. Pierre Magistretti, co-director of the Brain Mind Institute at the Federal Institute of Technology of Lausanne (EPFL) and director of the Center for Psychiatric Neurosciences at the Lausanne University Hospital, and Dr. Francois Ansermet, head of the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at the Geneva University Hospital, spoke with Dana Foundation Chairman William Safire about their new book, Biology of Freedom: Neural Plasticity, Experience, and the Unconscious, and the bridge between neuroscience and psychoanalysis. The event took place on November 14, 2007 at the Dana Center in Washington, DC.

David Nathan, M.D., author of The Cancer Treatment Revolution: How Smart Drugs and Other Therapies Are Renewing Our Hope and Changing the Face of Medicine and president emeritus of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, was interviewed by William Safire, chairman of the Dana Foundation, on October 10, 2007 at the Dana Center in Washington, DC. Nathan and Safire spoke about the scientific and human aspects of the war against cancer and what it means to have and fight cancer in the 21st century.